A state of steady vigorous action that is characteristic of an activity.

Roget 840: amusement, entertainment, recreation, fun, game, fun and games; diversion, divertissement; reaction, solace; pastime, passetemps [Fr.], sport; labor of love; pleasure etc. 827.    relaxation; leisure etc. 685.    fun, frolic, merriment, jollity; joviality, jovialness^†; heyday; laughter etc. 838; jocosity, jocoseness^†; drollery, buffoonery, tomfoolery; mummery, pleasantry; wit etc. 842; quip, quirk.    [verbal expressions of amusement: list] giggle, titter, snigger, snicker, crow, cheer, chuckle, shout; horse laugh, belly laugh, hearty laugh; guffaw; burst of laughter, fit of laughter, shout of laughter, roar of laughter, peal of laughter; cachinnation^†; Kentish fire; tiger.    play; game, game at romps; gambol, romp, prank, antic, rig, lark, spree, skylarking, vagary, monkey trick, gambade, fredaine^†, escapade, echappee [Fr.], bout, espieglerie [Fr.]; practical joke etc. (ridicule) 856.    dance; hop, reel, rigadoon^†, saraband^†, hornpipe, bolero, ballroom dance; [ballroom dances: list], minuet, waltz, polka, fox trot, tango, samba, rhumba, twist, stroll, hustle, cha-cha; fandango, cancan; bayadere^†; breakdown, cake-walk, cornwallis [U.S.], break dancing; nautch-girl; shindig [U.S.]; skirtdance^†, stag dance, Virginia reel, square dance; galop^†, galopade^†; jig, Irish jig, fling, strathspey^†; allemande [Fr.]; gavot^†, gavotte, tarantella; mazurka, morisco^†, morris dance; quadrille; country dance, folk dance; cotillon, Sir Roger de Coverley; ballet etc. (drama) 599; ball; bal, bal masque, bal costume; masquerade; Terpsichore.    festivity, merrymaking; party etc. (social gathering) 892; blowout [U.S.], hullabaloo, hoedown, bat [U.S.], bum [U.S.], bust [Slang], clambake [U.S.], donation party [U.S.], fish fry [U.S.], jamboree [Slang], kantikoy^†, nautch^†, randy, squantum [U.S.], tear [Slang], Turnerfest^†, yule log; fete, festival, gala, ridotto^†; revels, revelry, reveling; carnival, brawl, saturnalia, high jinks; feast, banquet etc. (food) 298; regale, symposium, wassail; carouse, carousal; jollification, junket, wake, Irish wake, picnic, fete champetre [Fr.], regatta, field day; treat.    round of pleasures, dissipation, a short life and a merry one, racketing, holiday making.    rejoicing etc. 838; jubilee etc. (celebration) 883.    bonfire, fireworks, feu-de-joie, firecracker.    holiday; gala day, red letter day, play day; high days and holidays; high holiday, Bank holiday; May day, Derby day; Saint Monday, Easter Monday, Whit Monday; Bairam^†; wayz-goos^†, bean feast; Arbor Day, Declaration Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day; Mardi gras [Fr.], mi-careme [Fr.], feria [Lat.], fiesta.    place of amusement, theater; hall, concert room, ballroom, assemblyroom^†; music hall.    park, plaisance^†; national park, national forest, state park, county park, city park, vest-pocket park, public park (public) 737.1; arbor; garden etc. (horticulture) 371; pleasure ground, playground, cricketground, croquet ground, archery ground, hunting ground; tennis court, racket court; bowling alley, green alley; croquet lawn, rink, glaciarum^†, skating rink; roundabout, merry-go-round; swing; montagne Russe [Fr.].    game of chance, game of skill.    athletic sports, gymnastics; archery, rifle shooting; tournament, pugilism etc. (contention) 720; sports etc. 622; horse racing, the turf; aquatics etc. 267; skating, sliding; cricket, tennis, lawn tennis; hockey, football, baseball, soccer, ice hockey, basketball; rackets, fives, trap bat and ball, battledore and shuttlecock, la grace; pall-mall, tipcat^†, croquet, golf, curling, pallone^†, polo, water polo; tent pegging; tilting at the ring, quintain [Mediev.]; greasy pole; quoits, horseshoes, discus; rounders, lacrosse; tobogganing, water polo; knurr and spell^†.    [childrens' games] leapfrog, hop skip and jump; mother may I; French and English, tug of war; blindman's bluff, hunt the slopper^†, hide and seek, kiss in the ring; snapdragon; cross questions and crooked answers.   ; crisscross, hopscotch; jacks, jackstones^†, marbles; mumblety-peg, mumble-the-peg, pushball, shinney, shinny, tag &c.; billiards, pool, pingpong, pyramids, bagatelle; bowls, skittles, ninepins, kain^†, American bowls^†; tenpins [U.S.], tivoli.    cards, card games; whist, rubber; round game; loo, cribbage, besique^†, euchre, drole^†, ecarte [Fr.], picquet^†, allfours^†, quadrille, omber, reverse, Pope Joan, commit; boston, boaston^†; blackjack, twenty-one, vingtun [Fr.]; quinze [Fr.], thirty-one, put, speculation, connections, brag, cassino^†, lottery, commerce, snip-snap-snoren^†, lift smoke, blind hookey, Polish bank, Earl of Coventry, Napoleon, patience, pairs; banker; blind poker, draw poker, straight poker, stud poker; bluff, bridge, bridge whist; lotto, monte, three-card monte, nap, penny-ante, poker, reversis^†, squeezers, old maid, fright, beggar-my-neighbor; baccarat.    [cards: list] ace, king, queen, knave, jack, ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, trey, deuce; joker; trump, wild card.    [card suits: list] spades, hearts, clubs, diamonds; major suit, minor suit.    bower; right bower, left bower; dummy; jackpot; deck.    [hands at poker: list] pair, two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full-house, four of a kind, royal flush; misere &c.. [board games: list] chess, draughts, checkers, checquers, backgammon, dominos, merelles^†, nine men's morris, go bang, solitaire; game of fox and goose; monopoly; loto &c.; [word games: list], scrabble, scribbage, boggle, crossword puzzle, hangman.    morra^†; gambling etc. (chance) 621.    toy, plaything, bauble; doll etc. (puppet ) 554; teetotum^†; knickknack etc. (trifle) 643; magic lantern etc. (show) 448; peep show, puppet show, raree show, gallanty show^†; toy shop; quips and cranks and wanton wiles, nods and becks quips and cranks and wanton wiles, nods and becks and wreathed smiles" [Milton]. entertainer, showman, showgirl; dancer, tap dancer, song-and-dance man; vaudeville act; singer; musician etc. 416.    sportsman, gamester, reveler; master of ceremonies, master of revels; pompom girl^†; arbiter elegantiarum [Lat.]; arbiter bibendi [Lat.], archer, fan [U.S.], toxophilite^†, turfman^†.    ... show more

Roget 748: freedom, liberty, independence; license etc. (permission) 760; facility etc. 705.    scope, range, latitude, play; free play, full play, free scope, full scope; free stage and no favor; swing, full swing, elbowroom, margin, rope, wide berth; Liberty Hall.    franchise, denization^†; free man, freed man, livery man; denizen.    autonomy, self-government, liberalism, free trade; noninterference etc. 706; Monroe Doctrine [U.S.].    immunity, exemption; emancipation etc. (liberation) 750; enfranchisement, affranchisement^†.    free land, freehold; allodium^†; frankalmoigne [Fr.], mortmain [Fr.].    bushwhacker; freelance, free thinker, free trader; independent.    ... show more

Roget 180: space, extension, extent, superficial extent, expanse, stretch, hyperspace; room, scope, range, field, way, expansion, compass, sweep, swing, spread.    dimension, length etc. 200; distance etc. 196; size etc. 192; volume; hypervolume.    latitude, play, leeway, purchase, tolerance, room for maneuver.    spare room, elbow room, house room; stowage, roomage^†, margin; opening, sphere, arena.    open space, free space; void etc. (absence) 187; waste; wildness, wilderness; moor, moorland; campagna^†.    abyss etc. (interval) 198; unlimited space; infinity etc. 105; world; ubiquity etc. (presence) 186; length and breadth of the land.    proportions, acreage; acres, acres and perches, roods and perches, hectares, square miles; square inches, square yards, square centimeters, square meters, yards (clothing) &c.; ares, arpents^†.    ... show more

Roget 170: agency, operation, force, working, strain, function, office, maintenance, exercise, work, swing, play; interworking^†, interaction; procurement.    causation etc. 153; instrumentality etc. 631; influence etc. 175; action etc. (voluntary) 680; modus operandi etc. 627.    quickening power, maintaining power, sustaining power; home stroke.    ... show more

Polish: rozmach

Mechanical device used as a plaything to support someone swinging back and forth.

Polish: huśtawka

A sweeping blow or stroke.

Polish: zamach

Changing location by moving back and forth.

synonyms: swinging, vacillation.

Roget 314: oscillation; vibration, libration; motion of a pendulum; nutation; undulation; pulsation; pulse.    alternation; coming and going etc. v.; ebb and flow, flux and reflux, ups and down.    fluctuation; vacillation etc. (irresolution) 605.    wave, vibratiuncle^†, swing, beat, shake, wag, seesaw, dance, lurch, dodge; logan^†, loggan^†, rocking-stone, vibroscope^†.    ... show more

Dutch: wankeling, fluctuatie, golfbeweging, schommeling, slingerbeweging, slingering
Polish: zakołysanie

A style of jazz played by big bands popular in the 1930s; flowing rhythms but less complex than later styles of jazz.

synonyms: jive, swing music.

Dutch: nonsens
Polish: swing

A jaunty rhythm in music.

synonym: lilt.

Polish: swing

The act of swinging a golf club at a golf ball and (usually) hitting it.

synonyms: golf shot, golf stroke.

Dutch: swing

In baseball; a batter's attempt to hit a pitched ball.

synonyms: baseball swing, cut.

A square dance figure; a pair of dancers join hands and dance around a point between them.

Move in a curve or arc, usually with the intent of hitting.

Roget 972: punish; chastise, chasten; castigate, correct, inflict punishment, administer correction, deal retributive justice; cowhide, lambaste [Slang].    visit upon, pay; pay out, serve out; do for; make short work of, give a lesson to, serve one right, make an example of; have a rod in pickle for; give it one.    strike etc. 276; deal a blow to, administer the lash, smite; slap, slap the face; smack, cuff, box the ears, spank, thwack, thump, beat, lay on, swinge^†, buffet; thresh, thrash, pummel, drub, leather, trounce, sandbag, baste, belabor; lace, lace one's jacket; dress, dress down, give a dressing, trim, warm, wipe, tund^†, cob, bang, strap, comb, lash, lick, larrup, wallop, whop, flog, scourge, whip, birch, cane, give the stick, switch, flagellate, horsewhip, bastinado, towel, rub down with an oaken towel, rib roast, dust one's jacket, fustigate^†, pitch into, lay about one, beat black and blue; beat to a mummy, beat to a jelly; give a black eye.    tar and feather; pelt, stone, lapidate^†; masthead, keelhaul.    execute; bring to the block, bring to the gallows; behead, decapitate, guillotine; decollate; hang, turn off, gibbet, bowstring, hang draw and quarter; shoot; decimate; burn; break on the wheel, crucify; empale^†, impale; flay; lynch; electrocute; gas, send to the gas chamber.    torture; put on, put to the rack; picket.    banish, exile, transport, expel, ostracize; rusticate; drum out; dismiss, disbar, disbench^†; strike off the roll, unfrock; post.    suffer, suffer for, suffer punishment; be flogged.    be executed, suffer the ultimate penalty; be hanged &c.; come to the gallows, mount the gallows, swing [Coll.], twist in the wind, dance upon nothing, die in one's shoes; be rightly served; be electrocuted, fry [Coll.], ride the lightning [Coll.]; face the firing squad.    ... show more

Move or walk in a swinging or swaying manner.

synonym: sway.

Dutch: heupwiegen, zwieren

Change direction with a swinging motion; turn.

Influence decisively.

synonym: swing over.

Make a big sweeping gesture or movement.

synonyms: sweep, swing out.

Hang freely.

synonyms: dangle, drop.

Roget 214: be pendent etc. adj.; hang, depend, swing, dangle; swag; daggle^†, flap, trail, flow; beetle.    suspend, hang, sling, hook up, hitch, fasten to, append.    ... show more

Roget 314: oscillate; vibrate, librate^†; alternate, undulate, wave; rock, swing; pulsate, beat; wag, waggle; nod, bob, courtesy, curtsy; tick; play; wamble^†, wabble^†; dangle, swag.    fluctuate, dance, curvet, reel, quake; quiver, quaver; shake, flicker; wriggle; roll, toss, pitch; flounder, stagger, totter; move up and down, bob up and down etc. adv.; pass and repass, ebb and flow, come and go; vacillate etc. 605; teeter [U.S.].    brandish, shake, flourish.    ... show more

Dutch: bengelen, bungelen

Hit or aim at with a sweeping arm movement.

Alternate dramatically between high and low values.

Polish: huśtawka

Live in a lively, modern, and relaxed style.

Have a certain musical rhythm.

Be a social swinger; socialize a lot.

synonym: get around.

Play with a subtle and intuitively felt sense of rhythm.

Engage freely in promiscuous sex, often with the husband or wife of one's friends.